The Sundance Film Festival, which runs January21-31 in Park City, Utah, will honor participating Israeli filmmakersin an event called 'Shabbat at Sundance' to be held on January 29. TheSundance Institute (which helps filmmakers develop their movies) andlocal Jewish leaders will fete Israeli directors Yael Hersonski andYasmine Novak, whose films are competing this year at Sundance, thepremiere showcase in the world for independently made films.
Hersonski's documentary, A Film Unfinished,is an exploration of the infamous 62 minutes of film footage the Nazisfilmed in the Warsaw Ghetto shortly before it was liquidated. Hersonskiexplored what was really happening in each frame. She came to theconclusion that although some of the film is clearly staged, theportions that were once thought to be true documentary footage areactually carefully scripted, and their participants coerced intoparticipating.
Novak's short film, Bus, looks at the complex intersectionsbetween the Israeli and Palestinian bus networks. Israeli films areregularly featured at Sundance and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud won the WorldCinema Competition there in 2007.